Motorbike jump legend who lit up 70s loses fight against poor health

After a life of death-defying stunts, daredevil Evel Knievel passed away last night in bed at home aged 69.

The hard-living stuntman, who died from lung failure, became an international icon in the 1970s for his jaw-dropping jumps.

Dressed in his trademark red, white and blue leather jumpsuit and cape, Knievel even tried to leap over America's Snake River Canyon on a rocket-powered motorcycle.

But, as on so many other occasions, he failed spectacularly and fell into a river at the bottom by parachute.

He came to Britain in 1975 and sold out Wembley stadium - where he jumped 13 single-decker London buses. On that occasion he broke his pelvis. Knievel - real name Robert Craig Jr - once said: "Anybody can jump a motorcycle. The trouble begins when you try to land it."

At the height of his fame, he sold more than 100,000 tickets for back-to-back performances while on tour in the US. During his career the American broke 40 bones.

He retired in 1980 but remained a cult figure for thousands of hardcore fans. In his final years, he was plagued with pain from his injuries. He also needed a liver transplant in 1999 after nearly dying of hepatitis C, probably contracted through a blood transfusion after one of his bone-crunching spills.

EVEL FACT

The young Robert Knievel was often in trouble with police. The story goes that one day he was in a cell next to one William Knofel, known to the cops as "Awful" Knofel, so Knievel was dubbed "Evel" Knievel. The nickname stuck